The Reserve Bank of India’s decision to keep the interest rates unchanged is aimed at boosting economic growth, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia has said.

“Keeping in mind the need to give the economy stimulus and not wanting to take too hasty a step, the (RBI) Governor has surprised the markets. Markets were expecting a hike,” Ahluwalia told reporters here.

“He (RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan) is expressing confidence that price inflation will come under control and let’s hope that he is right. If he is right, then definitely in retrospect it will be proved to be a very good decision,” he added.

In its mid-quarter review of monetary policy, RBI today kept all the key interest rates unchanged notwithstanding persistent high inflationary pressure.

The decision to keep the rates unchanged will be a big breather for the industry and retail borrowers in particular as the markets had expected another 25 bps hike in the short-term lending rate.

According to Ahluwalia, RBI thinks that recent indication suggests that the pressure on inflation, which is mainly because of food prices, will come down. The spike in prices of food items is seasonal in nature generally and RBI expects the food inflation to ease in the coming weeks.

“RBI Governor has said that there is some expectation that high inflation, which is largely driven by food inflation and that too mainly driven by vegetable inflation, will ease,” he added.

Retail inflation for November stood at 11.24 per cent, while the headline inflation measured in terms of Wholesale Price Index stood at 7.52 per cent during last month.